What you love/hate about your assistants

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.

I love how they really do care about the patients. They are my eyes and ears for me when I'm overwhelmed in paperwork. My CNA's are smart and I enjoy working with them. :)

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Specializes in LTC, Hospice, Case Management.

I'll start

Love the aide that just seems to anticipate needs - both mine and the patients. I'm looking wiped out and suddenly ice water appears in front of me. A resident (I'm in LTC) keeps trying to get out of bed - suddenly they are on a low bed with mats on the floor. A new resident is admitted - I hear the aide in the room telling resident and family member what times meals are served, how the family can join the resident for dinner, what days the beauty shop is open, etc.

Get very irritated with the aide that has the martyr mentality, the aide that goes from unit to unit "yelling" at other aides in a tone that I as the boss wouldn't use on any of them in any situation. I get irritated with the aide that is telling a resident "Well I think you probably have a UTI. I will tell the nurse to get you an antibiotic". When confronted with this, aide tells me she is going to be a nurse and her Mom is a nurse therefore she has a really good understanding of how to be a nurse. WTH??

What to do when I'm talking about the same aide?? This is my struggle of the day.

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Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.

The techs on my unit (burn) actually do the majority of the wound care/dressing changes. And they're good at it! (Duh.) I'm very...spatially handicapped so even cutting a simple chest dressing takes forever with me. The awesome "clothes" that they construct out of the netting to hold the burn dressings on are so far out of my mental reach that it's not even funny.

Honestly, I didn't have a traditional cna/extern floor job before or during nursing school. Our techs are all very experienced. I'm still a noob enough nurse that having a tech to even help with ADLs, toileting, bed baths, whatever is just so incredibly awesome to me. Things go so much faster and actually get done properly.

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I've been in nursing too long to even care.

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele/SNF-LTC/Supervisory.

I love my aids because they truly love the residents.

They can spot something SO minutely amiss with the resident and key ME into it so I can intervene and call the Doc.

They know how to listen to them (residents), and get them what they want and need.

They don't make them feel embarassed when they have an "accident", they give them understanding and compassion.

They report to me a temp as soon as it's taken, and will retake one without having to be asked.

They know they can come to me for anything, a boost, a towel, a hug, anything - and I to them.

They make my job so nice to walk into when I see them there.

They are DAMN GOOD!!

Love 'em!

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele/SNF-LTC/Supervisory.

Oh, forgot about what I hate..

Really.. nothing. I'm very fortunate to have this bunch of ladies!

Just thought of something.. that they're under-appreciated and underpaid.

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Wonderful. Even my "alarmists" because it shows how much they care for our residents. They ARE the back bone of nursing.

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Specializes in LTC.

First of all they are not MY aides. I don't own them. What I don't like about some of my co-workers who are aides is that sometimes they are very lazy. I will ask for vital signs and you would think I asked for a kidney.

For the most part many of the aides are work with are wonderful. They are my eyes and ears.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

I will tell ya what I hate about our techs.... We don't have them and that sucks big time !!!!!

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical, Hemodialysis.

I don't consider them my assistant's but I'm not going to lie to you I love it when they say that I'm their nurse. I'm fortunate to work with a great group of men and women. They are my eyes and ears and 99% of the time they are worth their weight in gold.

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Specializes in Rehab, critical care.

Nothing. Just kidding. Don't have any techs, work in ICU. Nurses do everything, total patient care, and we're unit secretaries sometimes, too, which can be tough when you have a really critical patient and one not so critical one that's pooping every few hours. Usually we have a unit secretary, though, so that is good. Glad I work with a good team of nurses!

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